Sale of student loans

Published 24 April 2018

Office for National Statistics has reviewed the full details of the recent sale of student loans originally announced by the government on 6 December 2017. The sale has been assessed against the relevant international statistical manuals, specifically the European System of Accounts: ESA 2010 and the Manual on Government Deficit and Debt (MGDD 2016). We concluded through this assessment that:

the securitisation Special Purpose Entity (SPE) will be classified as a financial corporation outside the public sector

the transactions in the loan assets will be considered as a genuine sale to the securitisation SPE, and so recorded as a financial transaction with no impact on government net borrowing

if activated after the sale, the claw back clause would lead to any proceeds received by government being recorded as financial transactions linked to the original sale, with no impact on government net borrowing